Despite acknowledging that Blackpool’s economy is going through a rough time, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced his decision to discard the building of a super-casino in the resort. "As far as two large super-casinos are concerned, I've said I feel there are better ways of regenerating those areas and that's what we're looking at the moment,” the Minister said.

Brown also explained that Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Local Government, is coordinating the work about what the government can do to help Manchester and Blackpool.

During several months, the possible benefits and dangers of building a casino in Bath have been fiercely discussed. However, until now the construction was considered a fact since only 15 of the 65 members of the Bath and North East Somerset Council voted against the casino.

Now, the announcement made by Culture Secretary James Purnell informing that the 16 towns and cities that received authorization to build small casinos would be requested to confirm their decision, could change plans for Bath. The Council’s new Tory leadership has determined that the resolution will be reevaluated and a free vote will be held in September.

This week, the Snoqualmie Entertainment Authority started the construction of Casino Snoqualmie, which will become the closest tribal gambling venue to Seattle. The casino is located on a 56-acre land and will have approximately 170,000 square-feet of entertainment space.

The casino will offer punters 52 table games, 17 poker tables and 1,650 slot machines. It will also feature a convention center, a luxurious cabaret/nightclub, five gourmet restaurants, four bars, a plush cigar lounge and a big parking lot with 2,000 spaces.

When gaming inspectors are not working, casinos are not legally allowed to operate. In 2006 state budget stalemate once forced Atlantic City casinos to close for three days, resulting in an over $55 million loss. Now, lawmakers are trying to make sure it will not happen again.

The proposed solution was a law that would allow casinos to operate with a special casino fund. The money would be used to pay the salaries of the gaming inspectors. The law passed the state Assembly with an 80-0 vote last week.

Multimillionaire Kirk Kerkorian has announced that he will search for alternatives for his investment in the MGM Mirage, the second biggest casino chain in the world, of which he owns 56% of the stacks. This could lead to the purchase of two properties in Las Vegas.

Tracinda Corp, Kerkorian’s Holding, has announced its intention to initiate conversations in order to analyze the possible acquisitions of the Bellagio Hotel & Casino and the CityCenter complex, which is yet under construction.

Macau’s 26th casino, built and operated by the Melco-PBL joint venture, with capital from Macau and Australia, will open this week. The hotel-casino will be located at the Crown Hotel on Taipa Island, the first six-star hotel in the Chinese special administrative region.

The complex cost approximately US$500 million and has 216 rooms, 220 gaming tables and more than 500 slot machines. The opening ceremony will include a gala party for 1,700 guests featuring a live show produced by the famous Dragone Group, fireworks and prizes.

Investments in the casino and gambling fields have diversified in the last few years and are no longer concentrated only in the city of Las Vegas as it used to be traditionally. This has permitted the development of new attractive destinations for players around the world, who have better and more varied services to choose from when planning their vacations.

Using Las Vegas as an inspiration, other destinies that have gambling centers as their main attraction, have emerged to attract tourists. Among them shines Macao, which has transformed itself in the Asian giant in terms of gambling and has over passed Las Vegas in terms of profits related to this industry, projecting itself as the biggest world potency in the gaming industry.

By a unanimous vote, MGM Mirage’s joint venture with Pansy Ho was approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission, in a meeting that was tagged by some participants as “historic”. This decision puts an end to a two-year investigation to determine if Pansy Ho and his sister Daisy are appropriate partners in MGM Mirage’s project in Macau.

The Commission deeply investigated the financing behind Pansy Ho’s share of the MGM Grand Paradise and sought for guarantees from both parties involved that all the necessary efforts would be made to abide by the state’s foreign gaming regulations and standards.

Owners of the Sahara Hotel and Casino have agreed to sell the aging property to an investing group.

Los Angeles-based SBE Entertainment Group LLC and San Mateo, Calif.-based Stockbridge Real Estate Funds have entered into a contract to purchase the Moroccan-themed casino and hotel from Gordon Gaming Corp.

"The Sahara is one of the last remaining original properties on the Las Vegas Strip, and we are thrilled with the possibilities that it presents," Sam Nazarian said.

A New Jersey anti-smoking group started this week a campaign against isolated smoking areas in casinos. They argue that these areas increase smoke contamination inside and out the smoking areas, as proved by readings they took on gaming floors in Rhode Island.

According to Regina Carlson, executive director of the group called New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution, the more tightly you concentrate the pollution sources, the more highly you increase the pollution.